The goal of SARSAS is to return salmon and steelhead runs to the entire fifty mile length of the Auburn Ravine and to create the conditions so the salmon can spawn in the City of Auburn in Auburn School Park Preserve.
So doing is a project that will take much money, work and volunteer hours so if you want to help, sign up on the Comment section of any Posting. Auburn, California, is located in Placer County approximately thirty-five miles east of Sacramento on Highway 80. Please help us.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Salmon Make a Comeback in CentralValley Riversmweiser@sacbee.comPublished Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010Salmon are returning to Central Valley rivers and streams in impressive numbers this fall,restoring hope that years of shortages and fishing closures are over.It's a dramatic turnaround from last year, when the Central Valley fall chinook salmon runhit a historic low. Scientists blamed poor ocean conditions and a century of habitatdegradation in freshwater spawning areas.It got so bad that federal officials closed commercial fishing in 2008 and 2009, takingCalifornia salmon off dinner menus for the first time ever.Now the fish are surging back. The numbers are not nearly as robust as in decades past. Butocean conditions have improved, and myriad small habitat projects are starting to bear fruit.Bryon Harris, 26, saw the results. He was walking along Auburn Ravine in Lincoln recentlywith a friend. The stream runs through Placer County before emptying into the SacramentoRiver via the Natomas Cross Canal."We hear this flopping and it sounded like the rocks were crashing," said Harris. "We lookover and there's a big old salmon right there … and there's a few more trapped in there,trying to make it. It was jaw-dropping, almost."The salmon made it that far because this is the first year in decades that a number of small,seasonal diversion dams have been removed from the stream. As a result, 3-foot salmonhave been seen thrashing upstream behind mini-malls and housing tracts in suburbanLincoln.The volunteer group Save Auburn Ravine Salmon and Steelhead persuaded landowners –with a nudge from law enforcement – to remove the irrigation dams. Federal law requiresremoval between Oct. 15 and April 15 so salmon can pass. But before they were remindedthis year, many owners either didn't know or forgot."I've fished the Auburn Ravine for 10 years at least, and I've never seen a salmon in there,ever," said Harris. "I was shocked."The Central Valley's major salmon hatcheries are reporting big increases in spawning fishcompared with last year. This includes hatcheries on Battle Creek and the Feather River,among the biggest contributors to the population."We're very pleased with the run," said Brett Galyean, deputy manager at Coleman NationalFish Hatchery on Battle Creek, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It's just beena good year."Salmon make a comeback in Central Valley rivers - Sacramento Sports - Kings, 49ers, Ra... Page 1 of 3http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/13/v-print/3181995/salmon-make-a-comeback-in-central... 11/13/2010The Shasta County hatchery, the Central Valley's biggest producer, has spawned about16,000 chinook so far. That compares with about 6,500 last year.The Feather River hatchery in Butte County, operated by the California Department of Fishand Game, had spawned about 2,600 salmon as of Nov. 6. That is about double last year'scount at the same time.The Mokelumne River hatchery, a smaller producer in San Joaquin County, had spawned justover 700 fish as of the same date, or five times more than in 2009.Nimbus Hatchery on the American River opened just two weeks ago and doesn't havecomparative results yet."The run to date is encouraging," said Doug Demko, president and biologist at FISHBIO, aconsulting firm based in Oakdale that monitors the run. "We've seen improvements in oceanconditions the last few years, so we expect next year we're going to see even more fishback."Scientists studying the salmon crash that began in 2007 placed blame largely on poor oceanhealth. Salmon in the ocean that year found little to eat, and many died.The problem was a shift in a Pacific upwelling current that normally drives deep water to thesurface, fertilizing a crop of tiny zooplankton at the base of the food chain.That upwelling current is back, visible in the abundance of whales and dolphins that touristsenjoyed off the Monterey coast this summer.Scientists say poor freshwater habitat and inadequate flows also contributed to the salmoncrash. This, plus the abundance of homogenized hatchery fish, created a weak populationvulnerable to ocean changes.Federal officials last year imposed new rules to improve water flows on rivers and in theSacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Efforts are also under way to restore creeks that are stillgood habitat, but have not seen big salmon numbers in many years.These small waterways include not only Auburn Ravine but also Dry Creek, which flowsthrough Roseville and North Sacramento and empties into the American River near Natomas.The creek saw hundreds of spawning salmon in past years before their numbers plungedwith the rest of the region. Now it seems to be rebounding."We're hopeful," said Gregg Bates of the Dry Creek Conservancy, which coordinated avolunteer salmon survey on Friday. "It doesn't look to me like we're going to reach thenumbers we had four years ago. But if we saw 50 to 100, that would be pretty exciting."The salmon that Bryon Harris saw in Auburn Ravine was halted by the Lincoln GaugingStation, an antiquated flow-measuring device that blocks the flow like a dam.His friend, Carlos Hernandez, jumped into the creek and managed to grab one of theexhausted salmon. He lifted it over the small dam, and it swam on."It's sad to see those fish get stuck right there," Harris said. "The fish was big, man. It wasbigger than a skateboard. It really opened my eyes."The Nevada Irrigation District owns the gauging station and plans to begin modificationsnext year so salmon can pass, said General Manager Ron Nelson. Then it plans the same atHemphill Dam, a larger structure upstream."It's pretty cool to be hearing about the possibility of fish being up there," said Nelson."We're kind of jazzed about that. This is a good deal, I think, for everybody."